Guide for GEMBA Students: Referencing Styles

Why cite?

Citing sources you used in your work is a very important part of your writing process because it can:

• Support your studies and ideas
• Acknowledge other researchers
• Help you avoid plagiarism and offense
• Help you to be a responsible scholar
• …

What should I cite?

• Information from publications, such as books (chapters), dissertations/theses, articles, web pages, etc.
• Figures, tables, words, ideas, definitions, cases, models, teaching resources and theories etc. that are not common knowledge
• To be safe, please cite your source when in doubt.

In 2005, Colin Neville surveyed learning support teams and librarians of UK universities and in his book published in 2010 he stated that his study showed:  

The relationship of adopted styles to subject disciplines was a little ambiguous, with science areas and computing/information technology (IT) in particular showing the most inconsistency. (Neville, 2010, p.43)

According to his survey he also suggested: 

The author–date (Harvard) and author–page (MLA) styles were consistently linked by respondents with:

• Business and management studies
• Most social sciences (except Psychology)
• Health education
• Many of the humanities areas
• Sciences, particularly life and environmental
• Most computing and IT
• Languages.

The ‘Running-notes’ style (including MHRA) with:

• Law
• Humanities, particularly History, Classics, Philosophy and some English departments
• Art and Design
• Architecture
• Some social sciences.

(Computer Science was also mentioned by some respondents.)

The Numerical style with:

• Medicine and related areas (Vancouver style)
• Applied science areas
• Engineering and technology areas
• Journalism and media studies.

(Again, Computer Science was mentioned by some respondents.)

The APA style with:

• Psychology
• Some health studies areas, e.g. Occupational Therapy. (Neville, 2010, p.44)

Source:  Neville, Colin. (2010) The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism. 2nd ed. UK: Open University Press. pp. 42-44. 

British Council: Learn English Online offers a series of free online self-study materials. Topics inculdes business English, grammar, skills, vocabulary, general English, etc.

Cambridge Dictionary Online: English dictionary & thesaurus, translation from English to Spanish & Turkish and Spanish to English.

Oxford Dictionaries Online: a free website offering a comprehensive dictionary, grammar guidance, puzzles and games, and a language blog.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus is an online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you explore using an interactive map.

Generally, citations will be placed:

• In your text with the sources you used: endnotes, footnotes and parenthetical citation.
• At the end of your paper: a complete reference list/bibliography

Citation information often includes:

• Author(s)
• Year(s)/publication date(s)
• Title(s) of the articles, journals, books, web pages, etc.
• Page(s)
• Issue(s)
• Publisher(s)

In-text Name Referencing Styles

• Harvard System of Referencing 

Citation Guide from Harvard Business School (academic 2022-23 Year)

SAGE Harvard Style from SAGE Publications Inc UK 

• MLA Style

Quick guide from the Modern Language Association Style Center.

• APA Style

Style and Grammar Guidelines from the American Psychological Association

In-text Running-notes Styles

• Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide from the University of Chicago Press

Notes and Bibliography: Sample Citations

Author-Date: Sample Citations

In-text Numerical Referencing Styles

• IEEE Style from IEEE Author Center  

Editorial Style Manual
Reference Guide
Journal Titles and Abbreviations
Magazine Titles and Abbreviations 
Mathematics Guide
Author Tools

• MHRA Style

The MHRA Style Guide Online from Modern Research Humanities Association 

• Vancouver Style

The NLM Style Guide: Citing Medicine, 2nd edition from NCBI

Example: 

First name Last name. Title. In Last name First name, Last name First name, editors, Book Title. Ed version. Volume number. Place: Publisher. Year. pages. (Book Series Information).

Chinese Referencing Style & Standards of Academic Honesty

ZoteroBib is a fast references generator provided by Zotero.

Citation Machine is a free online tool that supports Chicago(9th ed.), Turabian, APA (7th ed.) and MLA (8th ed.) formats.

BibMe is a free to use online Bibliography Maker for MLA, APA, Chicago and Turabian formats.

Neil’s Toolbox: an online Harvard and APA Referencing Styles generator